Pontifical Council drafting new document on marriage preparation

The Pontifical Council for the Family is preparing a new document on preparation for marriage, which will remind engaged couples that they should not live together before exchanging vows.

At a press conference in Rome, Bishop Jean Laffitte, the secretary of the Pontifical Council, said that intelligent couples should readily understand that preparation for marriage “does not involve the couple uniting their lives yet.” Young people “are capable of understanding this difference,” he said, and if the Church does not stress the importance of waiting until marriage, couples are subject to the strong pressures toward cohabitation.

Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, the president of the Pontifical Council, spoke in stark terms about the importance of proper preparation for marriage: “In today’s word, where the Christian vision of marriage with the values of humility, fidelity, indissolubility and openness to life are no longer shared by civil society and the general mentality of people, even marriage in the church has lost its value; in many cases, it is not just the fruitfulness of marriage that is at risk, but the value of the sacrament itself.”

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